Mounting a usb stick

oookiezooo · 04-13-2005, 09:42 AM

Hi,

I've read all the tutorials i can find but i cannot find an answer to my problem. I am trying to mount a Sony 64MB USB stick under redhat 9. here is my output so far (under root):

$ mkdir /mnt/usb
$ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb
mount: you must specify the filesystem type

Its here that i'm having problems, how do you know what file system type the stick is? I have tried auto which doesnt work. But don't want to try anything else just incase. Oh and i should add the Linux IS detecting my USB stick in the hardware browser.

Thanks, oookiezooo

mjjzf · 04-13-2005, 09:54 AM

It's usually vfat. In that case it should be

Code:

# mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/whereveryoulike

oookiezooo · 04-13-2005, 09:58 AM

ok, thanks for the quick reply, but i'm afraid there are still problems, after that command i get the message:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1, or too many mounted file systems

Any ideas?

oookiezooo

ArthurDent · 04-13-2005, 10:10 AM

Unplug the USB stick, wait a couple of secs then replug it. Open up a terminal and type "dmesg" (without the quotes). At the botom of all the garbage that will fly by will be some information about your USB stick. This should tell you if it is indeed mounting at sda1 - it could be sdb1 or any number of other permutations....

abisko00 · 04-13-2005, 10:12 AM

Sometimes the partition table is not properly recognised. You could try to mount /dev/sda instead of /dev/sda1.

You could also try autodetection of the filesystem:
mount -t auto /dev/sda1 /mountpoint (works with fstab, should do with mount as well).

Have a look at the output of dmesg after you plugged-in the stick. Do you see if a devicenode (sda1) is assigned?

oookiezooo · 04-13-2005, 10:21 AM

Ok, i have done that, the bits that i can see that look relevant say:

USB mass storage device found at 5
SCSI device sda; 128000 512-byte hdwr sectors (66MB)
sda:Write protect is off
sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4

Althogh i cant pretend to understand exactly what just happened, i notice that there is no mentin of an sdb etc... am i still missing something?

thanks by he way

abisko00 · 04-13-2005, 10:43 AM

I guess it happened what I just mentioned: the partition-table isn't recognised properly. One of these devices will be the 'real' one, so try mounting them step-by-step. You could also try to re-format the drive or try mounting sda (without number).

You'll only get sdb if you insert a second USB drive a HDD that is using SCSI or S-ATA controller. The letters are given in the order of detection and depending on which controller they are located.

oookiezooo · 04-13-2005, 10:48 AM

You were right abisko00 it was unable to read the partition table, but i've got it working now, is there no way to right click > mount > usb or do you have to do that every time? Plus, any idea why:

$ unmount /dev/sda /mnt/usbflash

doesn't work? it just says:

bash: unmount: command not found

P.s, sorry if i'm asking really obvious questions, if that is the case please just direct me to a decent tutorial, i'm very grateful for all the help so far

abisko00 · 04-13-2005, 10:55 AM

The command is 'umount' instead of 'unmount'. It is sufficient to use 'umount /dev/sda' or 'umount /<mountpoint>'.

You may add a line to /etc/fstab, e.g.:

Code:

/dev/sda   /mnt/usbflash   vfat    noauto,users,umask=0   0 0

If you are using e.g. KDE, you can now create a new 'Link to device', pointing to /dev/sda. This link can then be used for simple mounting and unmounting.

abattoir · 04-13-2005, 11:00 AM

I too have a sony 64mb thumb drive. I had tried to get it working with my mandrake 10.1 and lost all hope thinking the drive wont work with linux. Can somebody help me this is the relative dmesg o/p.

Code:

usb 1-1.2: new low speed USB device using address 4
usb 1-1.2: device not accepting address 4, error -71
usb 1-1.2: new full speed USB device using address 6
SCSI subsystem initialized
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb-storage: probe of 1-1.2:1.0 failed with error -1
usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.

P.S.: There is no /dev/sda* entry for my usb drive.

abisko00 · 04-13-2005, 11:17 AM

I googled your error message. One thread in another forum mentioned the use of the wrong usb driver. Try to unload ehci-hcd (USB2) and load uhci-hcd (USB1) instead, using modprobe. Then try to attach the drive again...

Not sure if this is the right way to do it. The guy from the other thread removed USB2 support totally from his kernel.

oookiezooo · 04-13-2005, 11:28 AM

Thank you very much for your help, i've been trying to sort that out since 8am, i only installed linux today and was beginning to become a bit dissapointed, but i see i will just have to take it one step at a time, i enjoy the challenge anyway!

thanks again

oookiezooo

just realised you wernt talking to me! ok!

abattoir · 04-13-2005, 11:41 AM

My system uses usb 1. Can you help me by telling clearly what i must do?(the generic command)?(or can you post or pm me the link to that thread)
Thanks a lot

abattoir · 04-13-2005, 11:45 AM

oookiezooo what exactly did you do? Do you have a sony microvault?(I was led to believe mine doesn't work with linux).
Thanks

oookiezooo · 04-13-2005, 11:58 AM

Yeah i have a sony microvault, its a small black one with a weird blue cylinder on the top, seehttp://images.google.co.uk/images?q=sony%2064mb%20usb&hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-24,GGLD:en&sa=N&tab=wi on the second row down.

All i did is pretty much in this thread, but i assume that it will make a difference depending on your usb ports. But heres what i did:

Insert usb stick

in terminal type:

# mkdir USB-Stick
# mount -t vfat /dev/sda /mnt/USB-Stick

then in terminal open an editor such as emacs

open etc/fstab

add the line:

/dev/sda /mnt/USB-Flash vfat noauto,users,umask=0 0 0

Reboot system, when it loads again right clicking on the desktop > disks > USB-Stick should mount and unmount your stick, let us know how it goes!